3 key benefits of a culturally diverse office workplace

Australia is leading the world in cultural diversity in the workplace. However, many SMBs are still failing to adopt multiculturalism as it can at times transpire a level of doubt and uncertainty.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australians are identified with over 270 different ancestries. Since 1945, the proud nation has had almost seven million people migrate to reside on its lands and is still continuously growing.

Cultural diversity plays a huge part in contributing to economic growth. This can be mainly seen in small to medium-sized businesses and corporate enterprises alike.

In this article, we’ll explore the top 3 reasons why having cultural diversity in the workplace is so important, and the compelling benefits it has for SMBs.

1. Ability to foster customer relationships

Most industries consist of various target markets and audiences. Sometimes it is not always black and white as to how customers perceive your business, its practices or its level of customer service.

A workplace of cultural diversity promotes cross-cultural understanding and respect. Employees are naturally exposed to a high level of internal cultural diversity. This allows for a greater understanding of the different target markets and customers.

The practice itself holds many significant benefits for SMBs. The most crucial benefit includes the increase of business revenue as a direct result of improved customer service. An additional advantage includes improved employee productivity as employees feel that they are providing greater value in their service offerings.

2. Allows for well-informed business decision-making

More often than not, employees in larger organisations face the frustrations of not having a manager who can understand or relate to them – culturally. This takes shape in the form of both thought-processing and the ability to make critical business decisions.

The good news is that managers who have had prior experience with working with diverse groups of cultures feel more confident in their ability to relate to their colleagues.

The exposure to professional workplace diversity enables managers to make well-informed business decisions. Such decisions may include the ability to more accurately allocate tasks based on strengths and weaknesses, or being able to identify work-related challenges early on.

3. Promotion of equality on the business-front and in general society

Diversity and equality have gained immense traction in the past decade. The practice has grown to become top-of-mind in the way people view everyday businesses, governments and societies in general.

To this end, companies who are not adopting diversity or equality run the risk of essentially been left behind, or rather, they already are.

It has become more important than ever for both SMBs and corporate businesses to be actively promoting cultural diversity in the workplace.

Businesses who actively engaged with cultural diversity will find that they have greater access to valuable talent and that their employees will benefit professionally as a result.